he was at a feast; and they gave battle to
him, and he with the most of his men fell (A.D. 969).

17. THE SEASONS IN NORWAY AT THIS TIME.

While Gunhild's sons reigned in Norway the seasons were always bad, and
the longer they reigned the worse were the crops; and the bondes laid
the blame on them. They were very greedy, and used the bondes harshly.
It came at length to be so bad that fish, as well as corn, were wanting.
In Halogaland there was the greatest famine and distress; for scarcely
any corn grew, and even snow was lying, and the cattle were bound in
the byres (1) all over the country until midsummer. Eyvind Skaldaspiller
describes it in his poem, as he came outside of his house and found a
thick snowdrift at that season:--

"Tis midsummer, yet deep snows rest
On Odin's mother's frozen breast:
Like Laplanders, our cattle-kind
In stall or stable we must bind."

ENDNOTES: (1) Byres = gards or farms.

18. THE ICELANDERS AND EYVIND THE SKALD.

Eyvind composed a poem about the people of Iceland, for which they
rewarded him by each bonde giving him three silver pennies, of full
weight and white in the fracture. And when the silver was brought
together at the Althing, the people resolved to have it purified, and
made into a row of clasps; and after the workmanship of the silver was
paid, the row of clasps was valued at fifty marks. This they sent to
Eyvind; but Eyvind was obliged to separate the clasps from each other,
and sell them to buy food for his household. But the same spring a shoal
of herrings set in upon the fishing ground beyond the coast-side, and
Eyvind manned a ship's boat with his house servants and cottars, and
rowed to where the herrings were come, and sang:--

"Now let the steed of ocean bound
O'er the North Sea with dashing sound:
Let nimble tern and screaming gull
Fly round and round--our net is full.
Fain would I know if Fortune sends
A like provision to my friends.
Welcome provision 'tis, I wot,
That the whale drives to our cook's pot."

So entirely were his movable goods exhausted, that he was obliged to
sell his arrows to buy herrings, or other meat for his table:--

"Our arms and ornaments of gold
To buy us food we gladly sold:
The arrows of the bow gave we
For the bright arrows of the sea." (1)

ENDNOTES: (1) Herrings, from their swift darting along, are called the
arrow